Garden Surprise

First, i admit that i am a big old arachnophobe. Even though i have a degree in entomology, spiders have been known to make me scream, if i walk into a web i panic, and they just give me the creeps big time. Except for jumping spiders. It seems that the shorter legs, being covered with "fur", and having visible eyes, makes me feel more like they are tiny rodents or something, because i will even catch them in my bare hands to get a better look at them. (I had the chance to hold a tarantula recently, and i couldn't do it. I couldn't get past the thought that even though it was sized more like a mouse, it was going to feel cold and have some weight.-shudder-)

I found this little orange guy, with the smile on his abdomen, in my garden today (Phidippus sp.)

There is a really neat website that you can check out if you find a "bug" and want to identify it: bugguide.net. To use it it helps if you have already narrowed your critter down to family, but there are millions of photos, so you can just peruse pictures to find your critter. These other jumping spider photos are from the website and are of other Phidippus species. The site is fun to explore, just to make you go "wow" and be amazed at the wonderful variety of insects and spiders in our gardens.

Fern Beads

We've been home from our summer vacation for one week today, and i'm finally getting back into the bead making. It has started fairly slowly as i try to figure out by feel just what i want to make. I have settled on making animal charms/pendants apparently, and the photos will follow shortly.

Meanwhile, i have recently listed in my etsy shop a neat duo of beads that i think of as having pendant-making potential. I like the way the fern pattern looks on the barrel-shaped bead, and the olive green and buttery antiqued ivory colors look great together.

Asparagus Flowers

May be the least conspicuous flowers in my garden. I have no experience with asparagus growing, but i bought 12 sets early this year and planted them as per package instructions in April. A few sprouted about 4 weeks later, a few more much later, etc., until now, in mid-July, the last two are sending up their first tiny sprouts.

I have learned that the plants will be either male or female, and both have tiny flowers, but i think these are male flowers. I read that male plants are preferable, since they live longer, are hardier, larger, and since they don't spend energy making fruits, they produce more crop. And if you don't cut down the female plants quickly enough in the fall, they drop their seeds and fill your plot with a weaker, less vigorous generation of new plants.

Next spring, i should be able to cut one sprout per plant. That will be one precious serving of vegetables! But the next year i can take a few more, and subsequent years, if my plants are happy with where i've put them, i should have lots of spears for the table and possibly the neighbour's tables as well. But we won't count our chickens just yet. :-)

twist of wire, lump of clay, and lick of paint

Precious little black sheep on my brother's knick knack shelf. Sure is cute. Hey, know what? You could make something like that, too.

Now if you did make a little sheep similar to this, would you be copying? plagarizing? stepping on the copyright toes of the creator of this one? Or would the original just be an inspiration, and because you will be using different wire, different clay material, and different paint colors, as well as bringing your own level of sculpting skills and your own ideas about what a sheep looks like, result in something quite separate from the original? Is your imitation just a sincere form of flattery?

I argue like this with myself every time that i realize i'm using someone else's piece of work as an inspiration for my own work. If i see a bead that i would like to try to replicate, i learn a lot in the attempt, but it never looks like the original, so i've ended up not worrying much about it.

If anyone has their own thoughts on "copying", feel free to comment or send them to me. I'll change a few words and post them as my own thoughts--just kidding. :-) I'll post and give credit to you as "one of my readers".

Family and Reminiscences

We don't think to get family photos done. But we managed to get one this year when we were all together. Mom and Dad at the base of the family tree, my three brothers behind, with me on the far right, and our families behind/around us.

Son H is having a blast with his "big" skating buddy. They keep in touch through Facebook all winter and practically skate all day, everyday while we are up here in the big city. (He seems to be some kind of poster boy for skateboarding, judging by this billboard downtown. And he's a great kid!)

Cute little heart carved into the paint on a bridge i was leaning over the railing of. Don't give up, Julia! :-)

And a wasp one of the kids found in my mom and dad's yard. I think it was trying to sting me with that incredibly long ovipositor, but it couldn't get enough leverage. Kind of took me back to the roots of my original career when i was earning an entomology degree, met my husband while i was collecting insects, and eventually became a stay-at-home mom... And I still like the bugs!

Baby Love

We were so glad to be in the neighbourhood when our new baby nephew was born. He is the sweetest little thing and he shares my hubby's July 1st birthday, so he will always have fireworks (Canada Day) on his birthday.

The flooding continues up here. The Red River came up very high this spring with the spring melt, but didn't quite get high enough to enter my parents' buildings in the city. Water levels went down a little and my fisherman son was able to fish from the bank. But over the last week the water has come up over the banks again with run runoff from North Dakota apparently. It feels pretty special to be able to sit out on the back deck and have ducks and geese cruising past within reach, but it can't be too good for the trees...

Loving It Up North

Sorry that reports have been few and far between during my holidays in Canada. Here are some pics, but with precious little commentary. I just want to mention the photo of the wall branch of paper flowers that i made one evening in the cottage. (The mosquitoes pretty much chased us indoors come dusk. :-))

small mouth bass fishing and canoeing, red-winged blackbirds, a muskrat lodge with a satelite dish and small Canada flag on it (nyuk nyuk nyuk), wild roses, wild strawberries (made wonderful pancakes!), and the adventure continues for a few more days...

Oh and i hope you get a kick out of the photo of myself as a bathing beauty. This is my real true bathing outfit. There is no beach at our lake so you need the shoes to protect your feet climbing up the rock face to get out of the water. My suit was kind of a three or four piece ensemble, ugly as sin, but so color coordinated!